


The Secret Life of Lulu

by wimblydonner



Category: Final Fantasy X-2
Genre: Character Study, Community: ff_exchange, F/M, Gen, chocobo races
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:03:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wimblydonner/pseuds/wimblydonner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lulu's glad to have a family, but she still has fantasies about her own adventures.  Rikku's thoughts are just the opposite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Secret Life of Lulu

**Author's Note:**

  * For [illuminedcraft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illuminedcraft/gifts).



> For Dreamwidth community ff_exchange.
> 
> Prompt: "Lulu, post X-2: Her inner thoughts and feelings, being a mother, being with Wakka. Having the girls maybe shake her out of her domestic bliss to go on an adventure would be nice, or maybe an exploration of her hidden uncertainities, musings on retaining her independant identity as a woman in conflict/harmony with her family duties. Any other characters in the canon are welcome to show up, alive or dead. Is there a dream she was never able to fulfill because of job as Guardian and then subsequent relationship? A love interest that was never explored? Whether she simply muses about the road not taken or actually up and takes it, just something that shows her complexity as an intelligent, driven woman."

Lulu's needle dashes in and out of red fabric, drawing together seemingly useless pieces into a meaningful whole, fashioning a whimsical new creation out of what was once the plainest of materials.

Rikku, peering over her shoulder, guesses, "Behemoth?"

Lulu holds up the pattern, hand-drawn on the back of a napkin in intricate detail while she was waiting for her son to fall asleep. "Rogue tomato," she explains. "It's for Vidina."

Rikku looks across the room, first at the enormous pile of stuffed toys--Cait Sith, Moogle, Cactuar, Moomba--and then at the toddler who was neglecting them entirely and trying to crawl under his bed. "Uh- _huh_. Whatever you say."

Rikku's skepticism is justified; it's indeed only half of Lulu's motivation. She has enough fun making the toys that she'd try to find an excuse to keep making them even if Vidina never touched them. When she first sketches out a new pattern, it's her chance to dream, to search the furthest reaches of her imagination for a fantastical new idea to bring to life. And when she assembles them with stitches and scissors and sequins, it challenges her problem-solving abilities: how to create antennae that won't break apart, where to attach the googly eyes so they won't fall off.

Rikku lifts one of Lulu's newest creations, Slime, off the shelf where he's sitting. "These are so good. Have you thought about making these to sell? Putting them on exhibit, even?"

Lulu _has_ , but she knows that she's in no position to chase every wild idea she might have. Making a career of her toys would require her to travel all over Spira, and coaching the Aurochs already has Wakka shuttling back and forth between Besaid and Luca. It's just not possible for them to do both, not with a young child, not when she actually wants to be able to spend time with her husband. And, of course, the Aurochs have to take priority over an unproven business.

But she's made it her goal not to dwell on such things. Everyone has to sacrifice. Spira's future--their very survival--had been built on the backs of those who put the greater good and future generations over themselves. So many, like Chappu, had given their lives; so many others had had to grow up without their loved ones. She counts herself lucky every night to be surrounded by her husband and her son, to be there for every milestone in their lives and have them there for hers. Unlike so many, she doesn't have to wonder would it have been like to be a wife and a mother; she _knows_.

"Not now. I've got a family to think about." Slightly ruefully, she chides Rikku, "Don't take your freedom for granted."

Rikku, anticipating a longer conversation, flops down on the floor. "Yeah, well."

Lulu raises an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

The younger woman picks at the carpet, using her fingers to distract herself from her thoughts. "At least you've got a family. What've I got? Can't go on adventuring forever."

Lulu smiles. "You've got plenty of time for that."

But it seems Rikku has her own regrets to voice. "It's not like I had to make trade-offs too, you know? I get _sick_ of being on the road sometimes. I don't want to get to be forty and wishing I hadn't been so pig-headed about my independence that I never got to settle down and have the family I want."

It's a fair point. There's no choice that isn't a trade-off with something else, there's no opportunity that doesn't come with sacrifices.

But then Rikku looks up, brain brimming with a new plan. "Hey," she says, "you need to travel sometime, I get to be the babysitter, OK?"

Lulu smiles. She can't be too sure about what the future won't hold.


End file.
